French produce specialist Prince de Bretagne is announcing the
arrival of its new-season Roscoff pink onions in some style – by sailing
it to Britain on board a replica Nelson-age ship.

The 47 metre,
1745 Etoile du Roy will sail from France to Jersey and Portsmouth in
late November, before mooring at Saint Katharine Docks, London and
welcoming trade guests and the public from 6-17 December.

Prince
de Bretagne has also been talking up the common history between the
Roscoff onions and the UK, with growers as far back as 1828 having
crossed the Channel to sell vegetables door to door – giving rise to the
image of bicycle-riding French onion sellers.

“Today, some
supermarkets, retailers and restaurants still use this product in the
UK,” the company pointed out. “However, given its past success, growers
believe that there is a potential to seduce once more the British public
on a large scale.?”

?The Etoile du Roy is a replica of a
privateer vessel, Grand Turk, which was seized by the British Royal Navy
in 1746. The 47-metre long vessel has three masts, contains 310 barrels
and, when armed with its 20 canons, would have needed 240 crew members.
The Etoile du Roy features in various films, as well as in ITV series
Hornblower, which was first broadcast in the UK in the 1990s.?? The ship
is now owned by French cruise company Etoile Marine.